• US OPEN Norrie and Rublev, on the way to Nadal;

    Sinner and Hurkacz, in Alcaraz

Confirmed the absence of Novak Djokovic, resolved with much more calm than in Australia (this Thursday he saw the fabulous Serbia-Greece basketball match with Zeljko Obradovic on the court), the

US Open

has another controversy on the table that it will not be able to tackle until next year at least: the

Flushing Meadows

tournament

is the only 'big' that still uses different balls for men and women, and in recent days some of the top rackets on

the WTA tour

have raised their voices.



To situate ourselves, the

US Open handles two different models of the

Wilson

brand

for the tournament:

extra duty

for the male team and 'regular' for the female team.

The size, weight and boat are the same, according to the

Washington Post

this week .

But the secret (discord) is in the felt.



The

extra duty ones

have a little more fluff, which allows them to last longer in good conditions on fast tracks, which are more abrasive than clay or grass.

This extra also makes the contact with the strings of the racket slightly higher and therefore, the ball does not accelerate too much.



On the other hand, the

'regular'

ones have less felt, which allows them to go a little faster and on clay, for example, they don't pick up as much dirt.

On the

women's circuit

These balls were extended to cement to speed up matches, but as tennis players have evolved, the measure has become counterproductive for the best hitters: the balls wear out faster, move faster, and are more difficult to control.



Swiatek and Badosa lead the complaints



Iga Swiatek

, number one in the world,

opened the season.

And she was followed by

Paula Badosa

and

Jessica Pegula

.

The three tennis players who have won the most matches in the hard court

WTA 1000

in the last two seasons.



"The balls are lighter and fly like crazy," lamented

Swiatek,

who has never made it past the round of 16 at the

US Open.

"Now [tennis players] have more power. It's not like ten years ago, except for

Serena Williams

, women played slower. [...] And we make more mistakes, of course. I don't think that's nice to see," he said during the Cincinnati tournament.



The

WTA

He pointed out this week that another reason for the change was injuries.

The balls weighed more and the tennis players suffered arm, shoulder, elbow and wrist problems.

For

Swiaket,

however, now the problem is the opposite.

"Now we are very well prepared physically [...] In fact I think it is worse because we have to put more tension on the strings and that affects the arm, the hands and the playing."



Swiatek

assured that there are more tennis players who denounce these problems.

This same year, after

Ashleigh Barty

won the

Australian Open

, her coach assured her that her pupil would never win the US Open because of the type of ball she uses.

The Australian dropped out a couple of months later, but there has been more criticism.



The most graphic has been

Paula Badosa

, who shared on her Instagram profile a photo of two tubes of the official US Open balls.

In them you can read how the manufacturer recommends the

extra duty

for hard court and the 'regular' for clay and indoor courts.





Iga Swiatek

elaborated on the problems: as she explained, the balls that can be bought in Europe are completely different from the ones used in the tournament.

The Pole assured that both she and

Badosa

complained last season to tournament president

Steve Simon.



The only advance that she points out in that sense is that since this year the four major tournaments of the North American tour

(Washington, Toronto, Cincinnati and US Open),

which have alternated.

"At least now it's consistent, but the balls are still horrible. After three games it's very difficult to play. They're getting lighter and lighter. You can't serve at 100 mph because then they fly like crazy."



no consensus



Swiatek and Badosa

have found an important ally in

Jessica Pegula,

number eight in the WTA ranking and member of the players' council.

However, not all tennis players are in favor of unification.

As is logical, those who favor the use of clay balls on fast courts have been against it.



Among them

Petra Kvitová,

a finalist in

Cincinnati,

and

Madison Keys ,

Swiatek

's executioner

in the tournament.

"It's my favorite ball," the American said.

"It goes really fast and holds up pretty well until the gear. They don't ruffle as much, so they don't lose speed, and that suits me really well. I can understand why [Swiatek] doesn't like them."



Inevitable to remember Andy Murray

's monumental anger

at the 2016 Miami Masters 1,000 when, with a match ball against

Denis Istomin

, they mistakenly gave him a women's tournament ball.

He was long.

"They are very different. Much faster, smaller and lighter."



But, at least for this year, the US Open will remain the only Grand Slam tournament to use separate balls for men and women.

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